CHENNAI: Durlabham trisu lokesu tacchrnusva vadamyaham, Gurum vina brahma nanyat satyam satyam varanane
“(This knowledge) is difficult to obtain in the three worlds. Listen to it. I will reveal it to you. Brahman is nothing other than the guru. O beautiful one, this is the truth. This is the truth”— lord Shiva.
In this dark age of materialism or kali yuga, no form of divinity can manifest itself as in the other epochs, like how Maha Vishnu manifested as Sri Rama in the treta yuga and as Shri Krishna in the dwapara yuga. In the present age of kali yuga, gods manifest themselves only in the form of guru.
The guru is brahman who takes every form, both animate and inanimate, be it flowers, stones, bees, animals, plants, sky, water, human beings and the entire nature. There is no place where the brahman is not present as he is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient.
The unmanifested brahman — the primordial cosmic energy manifests as the guru to nurture, nourish and impart the experiential knowledge of our soul, leading us to enlightenment.
Lord Shiva says, even in the three worlds of the patalaloka — the netherworlds inhabited by asuras (demons), bhooloka—the world where we are living in, inhabited by human beings , birds and animals and the higher world — the swarga loka inhabited by devas (gods), it is difficult to obtain the experiential knowledge to attain liberation.
This wisdom for enlightened living is very difficult to obtain as today we are in the state of duality even when it comes to worshiping different forms of divinity. Therefore, lord Shiva in the earlier dialogue with goddess Parvathi clearly states that it is the primordial— cosmic energy — Adi Parashakti who takes different forms of divinity.
Ultimately all 33,000 crore forms of divinity in the sanatana dharma merge into one supreme form and that is the form of the guru. In short, god descends to Earth in the form of guru. When we add water of different rivers such as Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Kaveri, Narmada, Krishna, all into one bowl, can we separate it? No. This is the state of guru who is nothing but brahman. All forms of divinity unify in the guru.
In this shloka, lord Shiva is revealing the secret of the highest cosmic principle to goddess Parvati, saying that the highest cosmic principle, that is, brahman, is nothing other than the guru. Guru is brahman, brahman is guru.
Lord Shiva is stating this very emphatically in his discourse to Parvathi not once but twice.
He says —‘This is the truth, this is the truth. The supreme truth is that our (atma) soul, brahman and shri guru are all the same. Know that the guru is the supreme, ultimate reality. The guru, resides in all of us, as the conscious self, our soul or atman’.
— Extract from ‘The Force of Nirvana’ by Shri Shri Nimishananda